The world of driver-assist safety technology is rapidly changing and improving with every new set of releases, and Chevy is making strides in putting more safety features into its models. Your local Chevy dealer now has plenty of models equipped with the most advanced safety technology. But with all the new growth and changes, there are a lot of different features that are now available in vehicles that may be confusing or hard to understand. We know that for us, the first time we drove and had the vehicle correct us, it was an almost surreal experience. We’re getting closer and closer to having cars that can drive us to wherever we want with no effort on our part, so it’s a good idea to see how those safety features affect one of the most popular manufacturers.
Chevy Safety Assist Package
When it comes to Chevy, the brand has a couple of different safety options and packages. The primary package that you will find is the Chevy Safety Assist Package. This safety suite now comes standard on most Chevy models and includes six of the most valuable and requested safety features available on the market.
Lane Keep Assistance and Lane Departure Warning
This safety feature has been included for a couple of different reasons. Primarily what this does is alert drivers when they are starting to drive outside of the yellow or white lines. If the driver doesn’t start to correct the vehicle back into its designated lane of travel, the car will provide subtle and gentle self-corrective maneuvers to get it back where it should be.
We really like this safety feature because it helps us feel more in control and aware of road situations. It also provides us with some confidence that if we have to check the rearview mirror or if we look at our passenger for even just a second, the car will keep us on the straight and narrow. Something about this feature that we really think is an impressive display of technological prowess is how it can detect if you’re intentionally driving out of the lines. This means that if you’re changing lanes, your car will recognize that you are making those movements intentionally and not correct itself.
Forward Collision Alert
This safety feature is mostly self-explanatory, but it again is a big one to include in the safety package. This lets you know if you are approaching the vehicles in front of you too quickly or if the vehicle in front of you is stopping and you aren’t stopping as well. We feel this is an important feature to have included because sometimes the drivers in front of you don’t signal if they’re turning, or their brake lights may not be functioning. Other times, we don’t always have a great grasp on how much time it takes out vehicles to stop. This smart safety feature is your car’s way of telling you that you need to start slowing down to avoid an accident. It takes the questions out of whether or not you need to allow more room for the car in front of you to turn or not.
Automatic Emergency Braking
This safety feature is paired with your vehicle’s Forward Collision Alert, and if you do not start to slow to a stop, your vehicle will start to stop itself. This can come in really handy if you have a car that darts out in front of you and cuts you off or if you’re slower when it comes to making quick stops. It takes the factor of reaction time out of the equation because your car will react for you and help keep you from getting in a forward accident.
Front Pedestrian Braking
This feature can be a literal life saver for those on the outside of the car. Designed to function while driving at speeds of 50 mph or less, Front Pedestrian Braking is able to mitigate the severity of a front-end collision with a person. This braking system will automatically engage the vehicle’s brakes if it senses a person in front of it. Chevy including this in its safety system is a really smart move because it adds an additional level of protection for those outside the vehicle.
IntelliBeam
IntelliBeam is Chevy‘s creative new name for its upgraded headlight package. This light upgrade enables your vehicle to consider conditions outside of the vehicle and then adjust your headlights to high beams or low beams to create optimal visibility regardless of the weather. This feature is one we think is essential because we can’t even count the number of times we’ve been driving in fog or rain and realized we weren’t using our lights. This feature saves any confusion for drivers in regards to what light setting they should be using, and it makes it so that forgetting to use your lights never happens.
Following Distance Indicator
We love this feature, not necessarily for ourselves but for other drivers. Following Distance Indicator is a road rage removal setting because it lets drivers know how close they are to the car in front of them. Your car will show you how close you are, and then you can determine whether you are too close to the other vehicle. While we really like this feature for others because we are tired of having our bumper almost hit, this is also good for us because it allows us to consider how much space we need to have safe stops.
Advanced Assistance
Chevy’s safety package has all the essential features and then a couple more, but they also have these other additional options that may not be a necessity for all drivers but will certainly come in handy for the majority of us.
OnStar
With the push of a button, Chevy drivers can reach help any time of the day or night. OnStar is able to provide assistance to drivers who are experiencing an accident, vehicle theft, dangerous road situation, or a roadside emergency. We would pay the extra for this feature just for the peace of mind that comes from knowing that if we couldn’t find a phone to call for help or something happened that maybe we couldn’t think straight, we could press a button, and someone would be able to help us get what we need.
Safety Alert Seat
The Safety Alert Seat is one of those features that really demonstrates just how far the automotive world has come in terms of safety. This aspect enables the driver seat to vibrate in response to perceived and potential crashes. The seat will send a vibration to either side of the driver’s seat to alert drivers to which side a crash could come from, which cuts the reaction time down because the driver doesn’t have to wait for the visual stimulus to make an avoidance response. This innovative detail in terms of safety is just putting Chevy above and beyond many competitors.
Teen Driver
The last safety feature we are going to cover is one that is essential for every parent whose teen is starting to drive. This is the peace of mind technology, and it has a variety of settings that can be adjusted to help teen drivers have better, more conscious driving habits. It even has the option to generate a report card that can be used to adjust settings. Teen Driver encourages teens to buckle up to drive and drive without distractions.
Keeping Safety In Mind
When it comes to having safety in mind, Chevy has some incredibly innovative technologies that should definitely be appreciated. Even better, most of these features now come standard across the Chevy lineup, so you won’t have to hunt around the lot of a Chevy dealer to find a car with the safety tech you desire. After looking at many of the different options and safety features, we can definitely say we feel safe in a Chevy.
